Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) may identify a beam switching capability for a subcarrier spacing for communications between the UE and a base station. In one example, the beam switching capability may indicate a quantity of beam switches for a plurality of slots of a transmission time interval. In another example, the capability may indicate a threshold quantity of symbol periods between beam switching operations associated with the subcarrier spacing, or a beam switching time for the subcarrier spacing, or both. The UE may determine, for the identified beam switching capability, one or more parameter values that indicate the identified beam switching capability. The parameters may explicitly or implicitly indicate the identified capability. The UE may also transmit the determined one or more parameter values to the base station and communicate with the base station according to the identified beam switching capability.